DOT aims to vaccinate 3K Boracay tourism workers, eyes travel bubble

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is looking into vaccinate around 3,000 tourism workers in Boracay as it looks into the possibility of a travel bubble for the popular tourist destination, according to Ian Cruz’s report on “24 Oras.”

This includes personnel working in hotels, restaurants, tourism transportation, tourism frontliners in airports and seaports, tour guides, and boatmen.

“This is what we need in the midst of the pandemic so we can help boost the tourism industry in Boracay,” said tourism worker Heart Flores, who has received the vaccine, in Filipino.

Around 40,000 workers must be vaccinated in Boracay.

“We have 3,000 and then by padating, we need to vaccinate 17,000 na tourism frontliners and kaya naman as the supply comes in a month,” Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said.

(We have 3,000 and then we need to vaccinate 17,000 tourism frontliners. It’s viable since the supply will come in a month.)

According to testing czar Vince Dizon, some of the one million AstraZeneca doses set to arrive on Thursday from Japan may be given to Boracay, apart from the Sinovac shot also expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

“Malamang doon namin kukunin pero meron din darating na Gamaleya, puwede din ‘yun. So decision na ni Secretary Galvez ‘yan,” Dizon said.

(It’s probably where we'll get some of the doses from, but some Sputnik V vaccines from Gamaleya are also arriving. It depends on the decision of vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez.)

Once the vaccination is complete in Boracay, the DOT and the local government are looking into setting up a travel bubble for countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, and China, which are frequent visitors of the tourist hotspot. — Joahna Lei Casilao/BM, GMA News